Can you tell us a bit about yourself, your school and its PE context?

As part of my role as a PE and BTEC Sports Teacher I teach girls and boys in years 9-11. More broadly, our school has a daily focus on improving vocational skills.

My PE sessions are mixed with boys and girls, with the girls typically taking a less involved role and being less active than the boys. Because of this, improving participation and inclusion for girls in PE is something I really want to improve.

Girls’ disengagement is more noticeable in older year groups (Year 10/11) as they often do not want to join in with the boys, particularly when playing outdoor sports. The Year 9 girls are more open to new activities and learning new skills but do not tend to enjoy the competitiveness of playing traditional sports.

What made you decide to try Studio You?

I wanted to increase and promote girls’ inclusion in PE, and it was clear from the very first time I viewed the website, that this was the main objective of Studio You.

I started by watching some of the videos to see whether or not they would be suitable. They immediately appealed to me because of how easy they were to find and use and how specific I could be with the type of video I wanted to use in the lesson. Plus, the website as a whole is really user-friendly and presented invitingly.

How do you typically use Studio You within your lessons?

I started by using Studio You as a way to warmup students – for both girls and boys – as the 10-minute videos work well in focusing and preparing the students for exercise. This was helpful to me to gauge whether they were adding value and were something the groups would be interested in doing more of.

Studio You soon became embedded in lessons across year groups – we now use them around once a week, mainly in joint lessons: the students became familiar with the videos quickly and were excited when they saw new workouts to try. We use the videos for warmups, for the main activity and as a cool down. Sometimes, when space is limited (due to poor weather) we mix and match videos – often starting with loosen up sessions before progressing to more intense fitness or strength workouts.

We use the workouts under the “Strengthen Resilience” intention the most, as the students find them both engaging and challenging and they reflect our school values. Studio You was actually highlighted in a whole school assembly and was suggested for staff wellbeing sessions too!

The year 11 girls particularly enjoy doing the Mindfulness and Breathwork Nike sessions. These are useful as the group enjoys having space, time and opportunity to practise these relaxation skills and the class particularly likes the Trainers in these videos too.

How have your students responded?

The response from students has been fantastic. Once they became familiar with the structure, they found the videos both engaging and worthwhile. I also think the students have related to the Trainers in the videos – as they enjoy having new faces delivering a lesson.

In particular, I found that the students who were not participating or had no interest in PE have now begun to engage more, especially with the Dance, Meditation and Breathwork videos.

It really speaks volumes that in one lesson, when I wasn’t going to use the videos, the girls were disappointed that we were not going to use it. This was a clear sign that the videos were having a positive impact and increasing enthusiasm for PE.

For me, having these videos on hand whenever needed is a great tool, as it has saved me some time planning warm up activities, offered a new structure to the lessons and has increased participation.